Dr. B.J. Putnam, D.Ac, L.OM., Dipl. O.M. (NCCAOM)

Hear what folks who have experienced treatment at GPA have to say about their experience.

I’ve been helping people find relief from pain since 1997 when I became a massage therapist and one of the things that still raises my righteous indignation is someone coming to me with their version of the same story I’ve been hearing for 25 years.

“…My doctor said this is normal.”
“…All they did was run a few blood tests and told me to lose weight.”
“…I took the pills/had the surgery/did the exercises and when that didn’t work, they said I would just have to live with it.”

The lack of options. The loss of hope.
Knowing that something is wrong but there seems to be no help for you.

As an acupuncture doctor in Pennsylvania, my practice revealed a significant need for specialized pelvic health care. This is why I decided to specialize in pelvic health. Those unmentionable areas. The taboo drippy bits no one wants to talk about but anyone can suffer from. My career as a health care provider is dotted with mile markers from patients and friends who came to me for help with a problem I couldn’t resolve satisfactorily, I had to look deeper. Learn more. Get another tool for my toolbox. Studying Massage Therapy led me to Movement Therapy. Then Acupuncture. Eventually, I went back to school again to study Chinese/East Asian Herbal Medicine. Every time I dove back into the classroom or buried myself in a pile of books I emerged with new answers. New approaches. More complete solutions to offer folks who seemed to hit another dead end on their path. As my knowledge grew, my compassion did as well. The more I learned, the deeper I needed to listen to my patients.

To listen without judgment. To accept that people bring their own lives with them. Their follies, their mistakes, their victories, their rewards, their living consequences. The worst injuries are the ones we can’t bring ourselves to talk about. I don’t need the gritty details. It’s not my job to shame someone who comes to me for help. I do want to know how it’s impacting your life and I want to help you to get past it, through it, beyond it.

I have a large garden, although I’ve never been much of a gardener. I want to be, though, and I figure the best way to become a successful gardener is to act like I already am one. So I go out and I do the work. I weed, I water, I plan and I plant. I make decisions about what to trim back, when and how to do it so that my garden flourishes. When I don’t know what to do, I read. I watch videos. I ask for advice. Then I make the best decision I know how to make and wait for the results. When I went to school for acupuncture, I didn’t know that I would be a good acupuncturist but I acted as I would be. Now I am. I have solid skills and I love my work. Love it so much that I’m on the faculty at the only acupuncture school in the state. I give my students the same advice. It’s ok if you don’t think you know what the outcome is, just do the work. Show up, take the next step, and do the work. Acupuncture isn’t magic. Neither is herbal medicine. It’s work.

And I would much rather be working, helping each other, increasing our ability to live fully, joyously, with less pain and bigger steps, than be doing anything else.

Despite what you may have been led to believe, your body is not “broken” and it IS possible to have energy, focus, and joy again. That’s because your body never forgets how to heal itself. It just needs the right support. Your body makes its own internal endorphins/opioids substances and medicines, and our therapies help it do just that.

While everyone else is looking at pieces of paper with numbers, and not listening to you – WE focus on YOU, your story, and how you feel. Are you moving easier? Do you feel less paint? Are you feeling more energy? Are you thinking more clearly? THAT is OUR focus. NOT more expensive, unnecessary lab tests.

Feeling better and boosting your body’s natural healing resources does not have to be difficult or take a long time. Simple, targeted lifestyle changes along with our natural therapies offers a very clear and concise way to attack the problem head-on, and patients often see improved symptoms, energy, and mood within DAYS not WEEKS or MONTHS.

Your doctor may have told you that you have to live with your chronic pain and accompanying symptoms or “this is as good as it gets”. That doesn’t mean there’s no treatment, it just means your doctor has run out of ideas or there aren’t conventional treatments available. We find that people who don’t respond well to conventional treatment often respond very well to our natural approach.

Our process includes finding and attacking the actual root CAUSE of your chronic pain. This is why so many have found relief with our therapies, even though other approaches didn’t work. Even people with a history of chronic pain have experienced significant relief.

Low Back Pain
Interstitial Cystitis
Hip Pain
Digestion & Intestinal Pain
Post-Hernia Repair Surgery Pain
Period Pain & Cramping

Tailbone & Sacral Pain
Pelvic Floor Pain
Painful Intercourse
Painful Urination / Bowel Movements
Groin & Inguinal Pain
Fecal & Urinary Incontinence

Humans are designed to self-regulate, often needing only small amounts of outside support to maintain health, however, the right support is often not found at a traditional medical facility. We are communal beings and the best support relies on human interaction, this interaction is at the heart of acupuncture and herbal medicine. Garden Path Acupuncture will provide compassionate, personalized care to patients while giving new practitioners a step up in their careers with mentorship opportunities. We focus on conventionally difficult-to-treat health issues with effective strategies found in acupuncture, manual therapy, and herbal medicine.

We bring ease to our patients while cultivating the path to success for acupuncture practitioners. With effective strategies found in acupuncture, manual therapy, and herbal medicine we address conventionally difficult-to-treat health issues and make accessible healthy living strategies and treatments to people who struggle to find relief from conventional care while helping other health care professionals do the same.

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